


When We First Met

by transtwinyards



Category: Proxy Series - Alex London
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Kinda, M/M, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 10:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3764734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transtwinyards/pseuds/transtwinyards
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Syd had began noticing the length of his hair. And Liam's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When We First Met

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song When We First Met by Hellogoodbye. Go check it out!

Oddly enough, Syd could still remember what he looked like the moment Knox died.

 As clean as he could get with the whole Yovel thing going on, going on two days of sleep probably cleaned up by the medical staff of the Rebooters, in stuffy clothing that didn’t help in the humid air of New Detroit. He very much wanted Knox’s clothes back, thank you very much.

And his frizzy, unmanageable hair was getting in his eyes, as Knox stepped into the machine. He definitely did not cry. It was just the hair, he swore.

As to why this was rather odd to him: Syd couldn’t seem to remember what the others looked like. His subconscious’ image of Knox was a wavering, and probably a bit of an exaggeration. His memory wasn’t all that good either, not after the… Withdrawal. No, especially not after that.

Knox rarely came to his dreams anymore anyway.

* * *

 

 _Curiouser and curiouser_ , one of Mr. Baram’s old books had once said.

Syd stared across the room, at his roommate’s own bed. At Liam.

Even in his sleep, his posture was perfect. Syd would be half off the bed, half upside down if he were deep in sleep right now. But certainly not Liam. Liam looked like a corpse, _slept_ like a corpse, perhaps. Okay, maybe he just looked so stiff yet so relaxed simultaneously. Let’s not throw around the word ‘corpse’ here.

Back to the point, he remembered what Liam looked like when they were inside the barracks with Marie. A strange memory to come back to, in the middle of the night, staring at his sleeping roommate like it was the normal thing to do, but he remembered it anyway.

Military haircut growing out, his freckles popping out as he visibly paled at the sight of probably five dozen “infected” civilians. His duty was to protect Yovel and here he was, escorting him into a potential slaughter house. The Council would have had his head and arm for that enough.

If the Council were still intact by then.

He’d looked so _queasy_. Syd silently snickered to himself, only to slap a hand over his own mouth as Liam visibly stirred.

He cursed and rolled over to his side. He faked his breathing, to throw Liam off. He didn’t know why but, being caught awake in ungodly hours snickering to himself sounded so humiliating to him.

Liam grunted softly before his breathing smoothed out. Syd internally sighed. Why didn’t he just go to sleep and dream?

* * *

 

Syd glanced at the army knife in his hands. Then went back to staring at his own reflection.

The last time he got a haircut was when he was declared Yovel to the Reconciliation. And that was at least five weeks after Knox died, and three days before the Withdrawal started.

Which was so long ago.

His frizzy hair had gotten so long, it had began growing past his shoulders. It _had_ to come off.

With great conviction, he grabbed at his locks and ran the sharp knife right through it.

Just in time to hear the door creak open behind him. He blinked at the reflection of the light coming from the door and slowly turned around to grin at his roommate.

“Mind if I borrow your knife?” he asked. Liam blinked and then rolled his eyes.

“You’re ruining your hair,” Liam grumbled, closing the door behind him. He approached Syd and made a face at his hair’s great undoing. Hah, get it? Hair _do_ , un _do_ ing? Any takers? No?

 _Anyway_.

“Gimme that,” Liam mumbled, snatching the knife from Syd’s grip, though it felt a gentler than he’d anticipated. With that, the other silently started working on fixing Syd’s little mess.

“Why’d you suddenly decide on doing this?” He asked, though it sounded like he wasn’t really curious about that.  It was just to fill the silence.

Syd shrugged as best as he could, a little uncertain and anxious that sharp movement might cost his precious little skull. That knife was _sharp,_ okay? He didn’t even know why Liam kept that around a five mile radius of Syd without worrying for his life.

“It was getting too long. Weather was getting too humid,” Syd replied. “Had to take some sort of action. And cutting off the sleeves to all my shirts didn’t sound like a good solution.”

Liam let go of his head for a moment, dusting off the shorn off locks off of his shoulders. He walked off out of the view of the mirror to come back with… Oh.

Syd turned around and pointed at it, “Where were you keeping those?”

Liam held up the pair of scissors, “Away from you.”

“What, and you decided that the _lethal combat knife_ was safe enough to put on the table? But not the pair of scissors?”

Liam glanced at the scissor in his hand. It wasn’t discernible enough in the dim lighting of their… quarters, on Liam’s metal hand to boot, but Syd recognized a pair of scissors if he saw one.

He and Liam held gazes for about a minute, until he gave in and snickered.

Liam really did try to defend himself, dragging his free hand through his ginger locks and accusingly pointing at Syd. “Hey,” he mumbled, trying too hard not to grin. But his body language failed him just as much, as they both fell into laughing fits.

* * *

 

He hummed as they both basked in the sunlight on the old broken couch that they’d brought in. He hummed a tuneless song as he ran his fingers through Liam’s hair.

They’d moved in new furniture earlier, since their quarters seemed a bit dull. It took a trip to Mountain City, and a bit of help from Marie, but they got their fair trade from the citizens. The task was to haul each and every one of them out of the vehicle and into their quarters.

It was backbreaking labor but they got through it.

A noise came from his lap, and then he realized it was Liam making the sound. It sounded a bit like a whimper. Syd stopped humming as Liam opened an eye to lazily look up at him.

“Why’d you stop,” he mumbled.

“Humming?”

“No, with the hair…”

Syd blinked, “Oh, sorry.”

He resumed humming and combing through Liam’s hair. It was certainly something, Liam’s hair. It’d been getting long. He had the same style when they’d first formally met after Knox’s death. He got the military haircut when he had begun his duty as Syd’s body guard. Now that it had grown again, Liam looked more like himself.

Syd laid back on the couch, eyes closed, humming his tuneless melody, and a small smile on his face.

He’d known Liam for so long, _loved_ him for so long to have noticed that. And he was sure Liam noticed that on him too.

“What are _you_ smiling about?” Liam suddenly asked. Syd opened his eyes and looked at Liam, who was smiling too. That same smiling face that just said ‘I’ve been staring at you this whole while’ that just made Syd’s insides tingle with glee.

He leaned down and pressed his lips on Liam’s. He stayed that way for a while, before parting and grinning again.

“Take a guess.”


End file.
